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Khitam Al-Khaykanee is a senior technical advisor working on rule of law, justice and security at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Previously, Khitam worked in public relations for a government water well drilling company in Baghdad, Iraq. In 2003, she became a coordinator for the coalition forces in Baghdad in order to provide humanitarian assistance for Iraqi detainees. Following her promotion to Cell Chief of the detention section at the Iraqi Assistance Center (IAC), Khitam joined USIP in 2004 as a program specialist. During her seven years as a program specialist, Khitam supported the establishment of new USIP initiatives such as the Youth and Media program and the Rule of Law and Transitional Justice program. In 2011, after seven years experience of grant managing and building the capacity of local civil society organizations, Khitam transitioned into the role of Justice and Security Dialogue (JSD) field officer in Iraq within the Rule of Law program. Specifically, the JSD program revolves around a series of facilitated dialogues in order to rebuild relationships between police forces and civil society in post-conflict countries. Khitam’s current role as a senior technical advisor focuses on the Iraq portfolio.

Khitam received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Baghdad University’s College of Education.

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Publications By Khitam

Many of the three million-plus internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in Iraq wish to return to their homes in areas no longer controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). But weak security and informal justice in these areas make safe return a challenge. IDPs, civil society organizations, and official stakeholders met in Baghdad, Karbala, and Kirkuk under USIP’s Justice and Security Dialogue program to voice concerns about and offer suggestions for safe return. This Spe...

Will Iraq’s current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki defy efforts to replace him? Will it break apart into several separate states? Should its neighbors do more to challenge the militants rampaging across the border with Syria? And are we giving this group legitimacy by acceeding every time their leaders change the organization's name -- "Islamic State" or their earlier moniker, "The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria"?

Anti-government Sunni militants have swept across western and northern Iraq over the past week, gaining control of the cities of Mosul and Tikrit. Operating mainly under the banner of the State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or also known as ISIS), in many places they seemed to have faced little to no resistance from the official Iraqi army, who, according to reports, laid down their arms and melted into the countryside. As they neared Baghdad, Kurdish paramilitary pesh merga fighters took con...

A neighborhood’s piles of trash or high dropout rates in schools may not seem like the most obvious topics for improving justice and security. But two communities in Iraq are demonstrating that establishing real justice and security means going beyond the standard discussions.